The color of characters and items is determined primarily by their default sprite color. However, this color can be modified with various tints, resulting in a greater variety.
Item colors[]
The colors of item sprites can be changed most easily in-game, by using dyes. Mix the item (B) with a bottle of dye of the desired color, and the item will take on a tint of that dye. Bottles of dye can be found in dungeons, or bought in shops - the dye vendor in Larna is the best source.
Savefile/memory editing: color tint is stored at offset 88 of inv.s1
Exception: dyes cannot change the color of NPC figurines, because the "color" slot is used as the figurine's NPC ID. Therefore, using dye changes the NPC that the figurine represents.
NPC colors[]
The color of NPC sprites cannot be changed in-game. Using dye on NPCs would simply poison them.
Savefile/memory editing: The color modifier is merged with the sprite ID. For example, the sprite ID "7398" means that the NPC uses sprite #398 with the color modifier #7 (black tint).
Color modifiers[]
Below are all the color modifiers available in the game. Dye bottles represent the color tint that the particular color mod gives off. Untinted dye bottle sprites appear white (0, 1, 12).
Unidentified Item Colors and Prefixes[]
Certain types of items, including spellbooks, potions, rings, rods, and scrolls, are generated with a random color tint, from a limited pool of color choices (0, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6). When unidentified, these items will show a color-dependent prefix next to their names, as indicated in the table below.
Tint id | Potion | Spellbook | Scroll | Staff | Ring |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
0 | clear | thick | blurred | iron | iron |
2 | green | mossy | mossy | ivy | green |
3 | red | bloody | bloody | rusty | rusty |
4 | blue | clear | ragged | sapphire | sapphire |
5 | gold | luxurious | boring | golden | golden |
6 | brown | old | old | wooden | wooden |
Exceptions[]
All other tinting processes override this random base tint, but not the prefix. Therefore, it is possible to have an unidentified "golden potion" that is in fact, displays a blue tint. Two specific processes are listed below:
- Equipment Material Types
- Most material types give a specific tint to equipment, including rings and rods. An unidentified ring with the random default tint id 2 will carry the prefix "green", and will appear green, unless its material type comes with a different tint. The sprite of a zylon "green ring" for example, will be tinted blue.
- Dyes
- Dyes are classified as potions, and potions are generated with a limited pool of random tints. However, a bottle of dye will also get assigned a tint randomly chosen from all the existing tint options. Thus the player might come across, for example, an unidentified "green potion" with a red-tinted sprite. Upon identification, the item's title will be "a bottle of dye (No.3)", and upon using it, will give its target a red tint.